Ilya Kabakov has subsequently become one of the most important artists of Moscow conceptualism and the postcommunist era.  Throughout his forty-year plus career, Kabakov has produced a wide range of paintings, drawings and installations often connected to his childhood and former life in the Soviet Union. Rather than depict the Soviet Union as a failed project defeated Kabakov describes it as an utopian project similar to the realm of art.

Since 1989 Kabakov has been working with his wife Emilia on several projects and installations.